a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Game 20 vs. SA: Lady Luck Smiles Upon the Jazz

“I’m really excited for our players,” added Sloan…”I don’t get that excited very often. I was excited for them tonight, because I think they needed that to try to move forward with the way we’ve been trying to play.”

If you’re the type of sports fan that likes the racing hearts, jangling nerves, and hot and cold flashes of close, “exciting,” nail-biters, you’d probably enjoy menopause then this was the game was for you. If you want a win at the end of the day and you don’t care if every game is a blowout as long as the end result is a W, this game most definitely was not.

The Jazz’s “if you can’t beat him, undress him” defense

It was a soap opera. It was a roller coaster of confusion. There were plenty of big shots to go around (Deron’s dunk, Memo not choking at the line with seconds to go), and plenty of FAIL (bad jumpers, leaving Bonner alone all night long, Boozer choking at the line with seconds to go) as well. It was yet another installment of “SLC: Where Matt Bonner is an All-Star for a Night Happens.” It was a cacophony of random, wordless sounds and emotions erupting from me in a Tourette’s-like way. At the end of the day, I kind of have no idea who I am or who the Jazz are, but, well, I guess this win doesn’t rank at the very top of the “Wins That Felt Like Losses” list. So, there’s that.

I’ll leave you with one thought: Wesley “OMSW” Matthews really, really needs to work on his conditioning…because he needs to play 48 every night.

(After the game, this conversation happened:

Mom: Did the Jazz win?
Me: Yes.
Mom: Oh good.
Me: It was against the Spurs.
Mom: REALLY????

When this exchange was recounted to [Spurs fan] C shortly thereafter, she of course thought that Mom’s reaction to “It was against the Spurs” should have been “Too bad.” The fact of the matter is, however, that Mom rooted along with C for the Spurs every time they went to the Finals, and she feels sorry for my poor championship-free Jazz.)